WATCH: Graduate Degree Is the Latest Victory For A UC Student Cancer Survivor

Tricia Monnin is planning a big move after she marches in UC’s morning Commencement Ceremony on June 9. Once the Versailles, Ohio native is awarded her master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from the UC College of Allied Health Sciences, she’ll be joining her fiancé, Derek Carson (whom she met at UC), who moved to Silicon Valley last August after earning his master’s degree from UC in computer engineering.

But throughout her last year at UC, Monnin was haunted by some news that she was hoping to leave in the past. At UC’s Relay For Life in 2011, she announced that it looked like she might be in for another battle with a rare cancer that she was first diagnosed with in childhood.

Monnin was only nine years old – suffering seizures and headaches – when she was first diagnosed with pilocytic astrocytoma, an extremely rare cancer of the nervous system. It is only malignant in rare cases, such as in Monnin’s.

“My mom thinks I was showing symptoms in kindergarten, but no one could diagnose the problem,” says Monnin. “By third grade, the seizures had started. Once doctors got results of an Electroencephalography (EEG), they wanted me admitted to the hospital that night. I underwent an eight-hour surgery the next morning.”

Monnin says the surgery was followed by intense, experimental chemotherapy. At one point during the treatment, she was studied at Duke University. She says at the time of her diagnosis, only one other child in the United States – a child in California – was being treated for malignant pilocytic astrocytoma.

The treatment was followed by another surgery when Monnin was in eighth grade. “I still have 17 tumors, but the one in my brain concerns doctors the most,” she says.

It was that brain tumor that raised a flag of caution last spring, when doctors noticed new activity on Monnin’s yearly brain scans. After another MRI this spring, doctors told Monnin that the tumor is showing activity, but at this point, she can avoid surgery.

Monnin says she believes her cancer battle is what led her into her study of speech pathology. “I don’t know if I would feel a sense of fulfillment if I wasn’t directly involved with helping other people. It’s very rewarding.”

All the way back to her freshman year at UC in 2007, she has also walked the Survivor Lap at every Relay For Life at UC fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society. Last spring, student organizers announced they have raised $1 million in the 10 years that Relay has been held at UC.

“Relay For Life is amazingly supportive for people fighting cancer,” she says. “Everyone applauds us during the Survivor Lap. It’s the most encouraging, supportive experience.”

“I am so grateful to wake up every day. From my perspective, that’s a great accomplishment,” Monnin says. “Coming so close to mortality definitely shaped my life. I want to make every day worth it.”

She also wanted to pass along a message of encouragement to fellow students and Commencement guests who are battling cancer. “There are so many stories, movies and books about people who get cancer and die. Rarely do you hear the stories of the people who’ve battled cancer and won. If I wrote a book, that’s what it would be all about – living. And I believe a positive attitude makes a big difference. Make the most of what you have. This year’s Relay quote says it all, ‘Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about dancing in the rain.’”

Monin ran the Flying Pig half-marathon this spring, completing the course in 2:13:51.